PIETY, NOBILITY, CONFESSIONAL IDENTITY. THE LAST CHURCH FOUNDED BY GRIGORE MAIOR, THE GREEK-CATHOLIC BISHOP OF FĂGĂRAŞ
PIETY, NOBILITY, CONFESSIONAL IDENTITY. THE LAST CHURCH FOUNDED BY GRIGORE MAIOR, THE GREEK-CATHOLIC BISHOP OF FĂGĂRAŞ

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to decipher the motives and the meanings of the foundational act undertaken by Grigore Maior, the Greek-Catholic Bishop of Făgăraş, in the second half of the eighteenth century. The bishop’s decision and efforts to raise a stone church in the village where he was born, over the remains of his ancestors, are examined first in light of their religious and social context. The second part of the 1770s witnessed an extensive missionary action, through which the Transylvanian Greek-Catholic bishops aimed to recuperate the territories where the Orthodox Church had consolidated its position through the anti-Union actions of the monk Sofronie from Cioara. The bishop’s decision to raise a place of worship in Sărăuad should be seen as the sign of his desire to celebrate his co-villagers’ return to the Union with the Roman Church, to whom he offered a more durable and spacious church. The last church founded by Grigore Maior appears to be the symbol of the re-found communion in faith between the people of Sărăuad and the bishop, whose roots lay among them. In that foundational act, stimulated by the example offered by his former local protector, Comes Antal Károlyi, one can also distinguish the noble mentality of the Romanian Greek-Catholic hierarch, whose concerns included genealogy, the destiny of his ancestors’ dead bodies, his family roots. He built a necropolis church, as a typical expression of the privilege claimed by this noble founder and, implicitly, his intention to distinguish himself socially. Last but not least, Grigore Maior, the religious man, also built this place of worship with the fate of his own soul in mind. His will is clear in this respect, his generous legacy in gold coins forcing the priests who were to serve in that church to commemorate him perpetually in their liturgies, as its founder.

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